Judge Backs Complaints of Part-Time Faculty Union at Columbia Chicago

An administrative law judge ruled Friday that Columbia College Chicago had engaged in numerous unfair labor practices in negotiations with the union representing the college's part-time faculty members, which is affiliated with the National Education Association. The judge ordered the college to resume bargaining in good faith, to provide basic information that the union needs to bargain effectively, to compensate the head of the union for classes she lost in what the judge found to be unfair retaliation against her. The judge ordered the college to stop "making regressive contract proposals that retaliate against the union and its members for exercising their [rights]," and to stop "insisting on contract proposals that essentially give [the college] unfettered control over a broad range of mandatory subjects of bargaining, including the effects of decisions regarding those mandatory subjects of bargaining." College officials did not respond to e-mail requests Sunday for comment on the ruling.